guzik annotated bibliography

Annotated Bibliography

Name of Student: Kyle Guzik

Course: ARTE 780 - Cultural Diversity in Art and Society

Program: Art Education PhD

Comments from Instructor:

Citation (APA Style):

Bell, S. E. (2011). Claiming justice: Knowing mental illness in the public art of Anna Schuleit's 'habeas corpus' and ' bloom'. Health (London, England : 1997), 15(3), 313. doi:10.1177/1363459310397979

Thesis (What is the problem the author is researching):

What can public art 'do' for understanding mental illness? What use is a public art project for those living with (and caring for those who live with) mental illness? How can a public work of art sustain and portray meaning in an expressive way, open up a shared discursive space, and demand witness through embodiment? (Bell, 2011

Summary:

This is a study of two public art performances installed for the purpose of commemorating the life and history of the people who built, worked in, and were patients of two decommissioned state mental institutions in Massachusetts by Anna Schuleit Haber. The 2000 piece ‘Habeas Corpus’ consisted of a “symposium, oral testimony, and a sound recording of Bach’s “Magnificat” played one time only at the abandoned Northampton State Hospital’” which was later torn down (Bell, 2011, p. 313). In 2003 the same fate awaited Massachusetts Mental Health Center; “Schuleit installed 28,000 flowers and grass in the hospital and arranged a one-day symposium and opportunity for oral testimony at the original building” (Bell, 2011, p. 314). Bell critiqued the works as public art in the context of stigma, institutionalization, and deinstitutionalization. Bell also details the histories of the two mental asylums as the physically decaying embodiment of the abandonment of an outdated paradigm for mental health care, and chronicles Schuleit’s struggle with administrative obstacles as she developed her vision to create and exhibit the works.

Author: Kyle Guzik

Methodology:

The author asks and proposes answers for a series of questions regarding the relationship between public art, the mentally ill, and representation of mental illness. Bell begins with an operational definition of public art and briefly reviews relevant literature on the history of mental illness stigma, the trend to institutionalize the mentally ill, and subsequent reforms directed at deinstitutionalization. Bell analysis “Habeas Corpus” and “Bloom” separately, but considers how the two pieces demonstrate understanding of mental illness, how mental illness is “known” in the works.

Quotes (what you find relevant):

The flowers, the controlled yet wildly extravagant blooms, are ‘out of place’ and displace the order of the hospital. The flowers block the halls, fill up the rooms and fill in the spaces between the furnishings. They take over the space. They are ‘truly organic, that kind of climbs and meanders around the hard, man-made objects that were left over from many decades’ (Schuleit interview, 2009). In their astonishing beauty where we least expect to find it they pierce through to the sensuous and material world of madness and its treatment. Their colors provide a contrast to the drab, dingy walls, linoleum floors, and well-worn cushions on the chairs. The chairs and the tables – all the furniture that is in these buildings – ‘tell directly of the human proportions … the furniture is … modeled after our bodies’ (Schuleit interview, 2009). The installation preserves human imprints and calls attention to them. The chairs in the waiting room bear the imprint of thousands of people, waiting through time. The flowers and furnishings are silent and still. The air is filled with footsteps of those walking through ‘Bloom’ and recordings of those walking through the building earlier. The sounds and sights incorporate people into the flow of the building and its occupants to see-as and to hear-as they did (Bell, 2011, p. 329).

Your response:

This analysis focuses to a significant degree on the use of public art for the mentally ill. How can it be of use to the mentally ill? The utility of the art is a significant justification of the value of the works. This is interesting because both works were ephemeral, lasting at most a few days. The goal was to create something beautiful in a decaying environment where beauty was unexpected. The works pay tribute to all who suffered and tried to help. They are public gifts of consolation to a group in comparable to the delivery of flowers or the playing of music to a sick patient in a hospital. “Bloom” is ironic, patients in mental institutions do not receive flowers, they are deemed to be a risk as patients could eat them or use the flowers or their containers to harm themselves. Extensive documentation of the pieces allows the contemporary viewer develop a fairly strong conceptualization of physically experiencing the pieces to the point that one may regret not having been there to see them in person. The public nature of the works acknowledges and validate the experiences of those involved in the mental healthcare system.

Author: Kyle Guzik

Questions:

1. Could works like these be made less ephemeral. Would some of the poignancy of the works be lost if they were less temporary?2. How could these works be replicated in other contexts? Would it be productive to fill a decommissioned police station or desacralized church facing destruction with flowers?3. Consider the scenario: a decrepit building is identified and filled with flowers and plants, the space is opened to the public who admire the flowers and walk across the grass lining the basement, the exhibit ends and a new abandoned building is identified, repeating the process. It is certainly conceivable that many people would enjoy having this ephemeral experience. Would “taking this show on the road” in any way cheapen its original purposes?


Author: Kyle Guzik

Brady, E. (2010). Animals in environmental art: Relationship and aesthetic regard. Journal of Visual Art Practice, 9(1), 47-58.


Alongside encouraging engagement and intimacy with creatures other than ourselves, problems of aestheticizing, sentimentalizing, trivializing, manipulating and just plain ‘interfering’ trouble our artistic interactions with animals. How do artistic expressions and interests regard and show regard for animals? (Brady, 2010)

Summary:

The author analysis human-nonhuman relationships by focusing on the use of nonhuman vertebrates such as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals in environmental art. Critical analysis of a variety of artists and practices within the subgenre address concerns that by using animal in art “problems of aestheticizing, sentimentalizing, trivializing, manipulating and just plain ‘interfering’ threaten the integrity of artistic interactions” (Brady, 2010, p. 58). The author argues that environmental pragmatism trumps a philosophy of total non-interference when artists intend to promote empathy and respect for nonhumans.

Methodology:

The article is a review of contemporary environmental art which incorporates nonhuman animals as an artistic medium. This pieces are most problematic when ethical concerns arise because animals are harmed while making the art, creating a contradictory message. However, many pieces are neutral or presumably beneficial to the animals involved such as a sculptural bat house. Some pieces integrate animals conceptually, for example through photography or noninvasive observation, but not physically. Synthesis of intentionality and practice in the works is used to conclude that it is possible to develop an aesthetic regard for animals, distinct from typical notions of aesthetics, grounded in care and respect.


The Harrisons, conceptual-ecological artists, are well known for this kind of work. One of their early projects, Portable Fish Farm, an installation and performance piece, is notable for causing an outcry from animal welfarists and others when it was exhibited in the United Kingdom in 1971, because the work was to involve the electrocution of fish, as part of showing the process of harvesting fish (Figure 3). This project and others continue to explore human–nature relations and the degradation of environments supporting all life. Helen Mayer Harrison said of their ‘Portable’ series of works that:

We made portable fish farms, worm farms, orchards – we made soil for one installation […] They were done in part to teach ourselves, as urban people from New York, how to

Author: Kyle Guzik

grow things, principally our own food. However, the process involved in doing so quickly revealed the ethical issues and ecological contradictions; the interconnectedness of things and causal relationships. (Harrison quoted in Hughes 2008: 34) (Brady, 2010, p. 50)Your response:

This article exemplifies a sharp division I perceive in social practice art. Some forms of social practice art use social justice as a medium- they make a cultural comment and interface with the community- but they accomplish this by harming something, typically a living creature. A vegan might decry the evils of the meat industry by torturing a pig to death. This piece would presumably attract attention and then the artist can smugly denounce meat consumers as enablers of a monstrous program of mass murder. The artist does not even have to be a vegan or believe that killing or eating animals is wrong, they simply choose to use this social issue as a device which motivates the production of art. Of course, like everything, this is art, but that is not the problem. One problem is that the true motivation for this type of work is self-aggrandizement: “I have a special message about evil in our culture and therefor I must commit a terrible act to draw attention so that society will wright this wrong.” This is lazy; it assigns blame, and takes credit without accomplishing anything. It is also cruel. For example, the pig the artist tortures to death did nothing to perpetuate the meat industry. This type of art wallows in the inherent nihilism of self-promotion. In this mentality, one experiences meaning only if others are watching. Typically, others have no interest so the artist conducts an escalating series of destructive acts in pursuit of a constantly receding sense of purpose. This is the unethical side of social practice art. Social practice art that is ethically neutral or positive does not harm others. An art has the right to do what they please with their own body, self, and life, but this freedom ends as soon as the social contract takes effect and others are affected. It is also unethical to harm animals to make a point. In animal research scientist harm animals to extend human life. This research also can reduce the suffering of domesticated and also wild animals. It is difficult to construct a chain of causality by which an artist hurts and animal and anyone benefits. One would have to find evidence that 1) others notice, 2) others care, 3) others take action, 4) these actions lead to greater benefits than the harm caused. These critiques undermine public reception of morally correct social practice art by increasing skepticism toward the concept as a whole.

Questions:

1. I have yet to see an example of social practice art with ends that successfully justified unethical means. Does such an artwork exist?

2. How could one prove that this artwork is successful in relationship to the above criteria?

3. How does social practice art, in its ethical verities, contribute to the debate surround moral universalism, or the notion that all humans are subject to common moral laws that do not change and have no context?


Author: Kyle Guzik

Inwood, H., & Taylor, R. W. (2012). Creative approaches to environmental learning: Two perspectives on teaching environmental art education. International Electronic Journal of Environmental Education, 2(1), 65-75.


A comparison by the authors of how their courses in environmental art education developed may help provide direction and reflection on the development of curricula and pedagogy in this emerging field for other educators. Inwood and Taylor (2012) found that environmental art education curricula can be “successfully adopted into the curricula of both art and science programs and delivered by both science and art faculty” (p. 72).

Summary:

The article describes a distinct hybrid approach to course design in the emerging field of environmental art education. Taylor worked in the Natural Science Faculty at Purchase College and wanted to incorporate arts enrichment to help students engage in dialogue about environmental issues. Inwood worked in the Fine Arts Faculty at Concordia University in Montreal and wanted to create art education courses focused on environmentalism to support the environmental social movement. The implemented disparate approached to achieve similar intended learning outcomes. After reflecting upon the completion of the courses the developed the following recommendations for best practices in environmental art education: 1) take and exploratory approach, 2) lay clear groundwork, 3) give opportunities to create, 4) provide space to share, 5) get out to the “gallery” (the gallery is the natural world), 6) encourage reflective writing. Inwood and Taylor worked together to create a common curriculum incorporating lecture, field-experience, art critical writing, and development by students of their own environmental message in a medium of their choice. Student responses were evaluated by reflection on course discourse.

Methodology:

The authors worked with two distinct student populations, Inwood (2012) taught a “large class of undergraduate students” from the Art Education and Fine Arts programs at the university. Many had prior knowledge of art history and art-making, and were comfortable in interpretive discussions. However, their knowledge and comfort level with the arts was balanced by the lack of even a basic knowledge of environmental issues for many students” (p. 67). Inwood’s class was fundamentally arts focused, in contrast to many traditional environmental education courses. Taylor’s (2012) class demographics were distinctly different: “about three-quarters of the students in Ryan’s small class were majoring in one of the social or natural sciences, with the minority majoring in the arts” (p. 67) Taylor anticipated that most of his students would already have formal training in scientific analysis, but little preparation for artistic discourse and minimal arts literacy, however the students who decided to enroll in the course shared a background and interest in arts not obvious on their transcripts.

Author: Kyle Guzik


As a scientist, Ryan experienced a number of challenges in his efforts to effectively teach a class about art, most of which seemed to stem from the inherent bias his training has given him towards a linear and categorical representation of the world. This reductionist predisposition made it difficult to present course materials in a manner that accurately reflected a field of study as fluid and dynamic as the arts. He struggled to accommodate the discrepancies that often exist between the intentions of eco-artists and the outcomes of their artworks, as well as the resistance of many artists to accept a categorical classification for their works. At the same time, he felt quite comfortable interpreting the science of environmental problems and landscape histories often depicted in indirect and sometimes unintentional ways by artists.

Given her background in art history and art education, Hilary was more comfortable with the history and fluidity of eco-art, and enjoyed sharing artwork with her students that was new to them; many were unaware of artists’ involvement in raising awareness of or ameliorating environmental problems. However, her challenges came more from an internal dialogue around balance: how best to balance the needs of the seemingly disparate fields of the visual arts, environmentalism and education? She struggled to ensure that interdisciplinary connections were clear, while at the same time worrying about giving too little or too much attention to one area at the expense of the others. Certainly her students needed a deeper background in the science of environmental issues, yet it felt as if there was never enough class time to do this justice, and students’ assumptions about science-based learning put up some road blocks. She felt constrained by the pre-existing structure of the course; the classroom location and timing limited the flexibility of the types of learning activities that could be included, running counter to active student participation. Certainly having access to a studio space as a class would have allowed for a more dynamic approach to the material, and supported students’ preferred learning styles.

Your response:

This article provides useful recommendations for best practices in environmental art education. Environmental art education curricula are of relevance to social justice teaching practices for several reasons. The first the contemporary politicization of environmental science and research. Environmental research is politicized to a degree atypical in the natural sciences. This is because the results of the research suggest political actions (government intervention to protect and remediate the environment) to support a political agenda (the moral imperative to protect life on earth and ameliorate the harm caused to human and all life by environmental degradation). An expressed goal of the course was to participate in the environmental movement and help students use art to provoke social change regarding cultural responses to environment.

Author: Kyle Guzik

Questions:

1. What would a course like this look like if it was implemented at VCU?2. In this student the course was taught at two different departments at two

different universities. What would happen if two departments (i.e. biology or environmental science and art or art education) collaborated to offer a single course that would be offered to students in a variety of programs at a single university?

3. How could this type of course promote further interdepartmental collaborations, particularly between undergraduates?

Author: Kyle Guzik


James, E. M. (2012). Speaking in tongues: Metapictures and the discourse of violence in caribbean art doi:10.1215/07990537-1548137


“Violence is facilitated through systems, discourses, or actions that result in psychological, physical, economic, and cultural disfigurement and reconfigurations. It has shaped and continues to impact one’s understanding and experience of the Caribbean, yet it remains the least studied element of Caribbean modernity… I am interested in how the spectacular and a-synchronic aspects of violence becomes content in coded ways in visual art. I am drawn to the manner in which artists from the region have redeployed the lulling effect of genre, particularly the genre of family portraiture, to produce explosive met pictures that encourage us to once again examine at a basic level the art object itself as both a discursive and a theoretical form.” (Jones, 2012, p. 119)

Summary:

James synthesizes critiques of a selection of Caribbean family portraits in a variety of formats including paintings, photographs, CD covers, assemblage, and installation. Family portraits are not typical intended or expected to exhibit violent associations. However, James uncovers subtle and sometime not-so-subtle coding in the artistic genre of family portraiture, which demonstrate a variety of modes and conceptualizations of violence in the Caribbean.

Methodology:

Jones begins by focusing on the violence involved in the European colonization of the Caribbean. She then conducts an art historical survey of family portraiture. She then demonstrates how art works successfully demonstrate “the ways popular culture appropriates and transforms canonical art historical images” (Jones, 2012, p. 124). The leads to an extensive discussion of the history of voodoo and its relationship to violence and art in the Caribbean. She uses this discussion to demonstrate how some artists have constructed metapictures and use their capacity to convey multiple meanings simultaneously to explore the complexities of historical violence. She concludes that two of the artists she critiqued Duval-Carrié and Patterson, “are able to reimagine and aestheticize the Caribbean’s chaos monde, and have it speak in tongues” (Jones, 2012, p. 141).Quotes (what you find relevant):

Patterson’s artwork challenges the well-worn paths of art history and in some ways, speaks strongly to a new generational paradigm beyond first-wave postcolonial, post-independence conceptualization of the Caribbean creative

Author: Kyle Guzik

imagination. Her art formally affirms and finds value in the manner in which (perhaps incomprehensibly) beauty in the region exists side by side and often in the same body as the grotesque. Therefore, Entourage’s relationship to the earlier painting should be read not as binary but as Cubist levity, simultaneously experienced across space and time.

Entourage is a seductive, disturbing, and disquieting work. It draws one in but quickly unmoors one’s expectations in a visual Babel. Like Duval-Carrié for Mardi Gras at Fort Dimanche, Patterson draws on the implied comfort of the genre of family portraiture. But here, bonds are formed outside of the economic and moral ideal of the nuclear family. The image is mediated through popular culture, and the contemporary reformation leaves little trace. Violence is not present but possible and even probable, shaped by history but performed and fashioned in the present. In this work, eighteenth-century family portraiture meets Junior M.A.F.I.A., meets Jesus and his disciples at the Last Supper, meets the cult of Duvalier, meets Tivoli Gardens and the dancehall (Jones, 2012, p. 137).

Your response:

In this and other courses, particularly in response to his recent exhibition at the VMFA, we have remarked on the novelty and aesthetic please of observing Kehinde Wiley’s appropriation and subversion of West European cultural hegemony via depiction of United States minority youth via decadent academic realism. However, this practice did not originate with Wiley and this article documents are variety of potential antecedent and contemporary artists working in this mode. The discussion on voodoo is illuminating and gives a better understanding of how artists can work with the concept of violence in a social justice informed practice.

Questions:

1. Does a metapicture need to be in some way representational in order to retain the ability to convey multiple associations in relationship to a specific concept?

2. The images of artworks included in the article do not at first feel particularly threatening but they take on a sinister edge when one considers them in the context of voodoo, iconography, and religion in general. Would it be productive to evaluate the degree to which this pieces are restorative and/or exploitative?

Author: Kyle Guzik


Leurent, B., Killaspy, H., Osborn, D. P., Crawford, M. J., Hoadley, A., Waller, D., & King, M. (2014). Moderating factors for the effectiveness of group art therapy for schizophrenia: Secondary analysis of data from the MATISSE randomised controlled trial. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 49(11), 1703. doi:10.1007/s00127-014-0876-2


The student attempted to determine whether art therapy was effective for specific subgroups of patients with schizophrenia including those with more or less severe negative symptoms and those who expressed or did not express a preference for art therapy.

Summary:

The article presents the results of a secondary analysis of a larger randomized controlled trial to investigate the effectiveness of art theory for the treatment of schizophrenia. The initial study found no clinical advantage over standard care. This secondary analysis also did not find differences in outcomes after categorizing and comparing subpopulations. The authors concluded: “There was no evidence of greater improvement in clinical symptoms of schizophrenia for those with more severe negative symptoms or those with a preference for art therapy. Identification of patients with schizophrenia who may benefit most from group art therapy remains elusive” (Leurent et al. 2013, p. 1703).

Methodology:

The researchers conducted a secondary analysis of the MATISSE randomized controlled trial, which investigated the effect of art therapy in comparison to standard interventions on outcomes for patients with symptoms of schizophrenia. “Participants were interviewed at recruitment, 12 and 24 months using standardized measures to assess symptoms of schizophrenia, global functioning, satisfaction with care, engagement with treatment and social functioning” (Leurent et al. 2013, p. 1704). The study found that art therapy had no clinical advantages and was not cost effective. This secondary analysis attempted to find an effect by defining and making statistical comparisons between sub groups.


Author: Kyle Guzik

Your response:

Schizophrenia is characterized by delusions (persistent false beliefs), hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that don’t exist, tactile hallucinations are

Author: Kyle Guzik

also possible), disorganized thinking (this is inferred from speech in which replies to questions are only tangential or speech consists of seemingly random groups of words devoid of meaning), disorganized movement or abnormal motor behavior (catatonia, useless or excessive movement). There are also negative symptoms which are deficits from normal experience like inability for self-care, anhedonia, lethargy, or flat affect (facial expressions and tone of voice do not exhibit emotion). The are no drugs available that can treat the negative symptoms of schizophrenia so the element of this study that focuses on negative symptoms is of interest. Art therapy could potentially help to resolve negative symptoms. This is of relevance to social justice art because it is an empirical study to determine if art therapy can improve the lives of a disadvantaged subpopulation. Art teachers will inevitably encounter students with mental illness, potentially including students with schizophrenia. It has been argued that teachers wear many hats and one of them is that of a psychologist. The time a student spends in an art classroom could be therapeutic and beneficial, or harmful depending on the taught curriculum. Art educators should familiarize themselves with concerns, including social justice, involving students with mental illness.

Questions:

1. One category the study investigates involves medication compliance. However, there are numerous medications and patients who take medications use many different combinations. Would a future study that also accounts for any differences mediated by variations in medication use be more effective to demonstrate the value of art therapy?

2. This is an attempt to empirically demonstrate the value of art therapy. What variables to demonstrate effectiveness should be used if a similar study were conducted for art education?


Leuthold, S. (1999). Conceptual art, conceptualism, and aesthetic education. Journal of Aesthetic Education, 33(1), 37-47. doi:10.2307/3333734

Author: Kyle Guzik


Guiding Question:Does the “heightened importance of "the concept" reflect a fundamentally new philosophical conceptualization of art and art education, or, more narrowly, does it reflect the historical influence of an art movement and a generation of art educators who came of age in the late sixties and seventies” (Leuthold, 1999, p. 37)?

Thesis:

The conceptual art movement currently is inadequate for serving as a philosophical foundation for art education.

Summary:

The author argues conceptualism does not function as a philosophy art because it does do distinguish art from non-art and deemphasizes aesthetic values. The author argues that art which is not artifactual and exists only as a concept actually belongs in the realm of philosophy, and proposes conceptual criteria which he argues cannot be used to distinguish one type of art from another. These two premises appear to indicate “there is no distinct activity of conceptual art in relation to other art forms” (Leuthold, 1999, p. 39). He focuses again on aesthetics by invoking Kant and then claims that Dada is the progenitor of conceptual art. There is a connection between art and education via the culture industry: education prepares students to work and artists work in the culture industry by producing cultural products. Leuthold (1999) expresses concern that conceptual art causes artists to marginalize themselves due to the implication that “the only social institutions that will support conceptualists to some degree as ‘nonobject-producers’ are universities and governments” (p. 43). He then identifies numerous artists which link conceptual art to a time period in the 60s and 70s. Leuthold (1999) expresses concern that if the conceptual art movement becomes a basis of art education “do we risk moving toward educating a generation of visual rhetoricians who freely combine image and sound sources to create psychological effects? How do we make judgments about the quality of the expression of artistic ideas in this persuasive, recombinant rhetoric/aesthetic” (p. 46)? He then concludes that if the conceptual is to have value the conceptual art movement must be replaced with a determination regard the role of the idea in art education grounded in philosophy.

Methodology:

This article is best described as a brief review of literature and synthesis focused on definitional arguments, selected philosophical concept, and the relationship between conceptual art and Dada as well as the conceptual art movement of the 60s and 70s.

Author: Kyle Guzik


Conceptualism does not constitute a philosophy of art in the same way that expression, institutional, or formalist theory does, because it does not distinguish art from non-art or clearly establish a basis for aesthetic value in art. Moreover, it fails to distinguish kinds of art from one another (Leuthold, 1999, p. 38).

The particularity of an artistic expression that results from its medium is one of an artwork's defining features. Put another way, all art is artifactual something is created-though it need not be a physical object. If an idea exists solely as a conceptualization, we might call this activity philosophy, but not art. If the conceptual medium is philosophical argumentation, the artifact that is produced belongs to philosophy rather than art (Leuthold, 1999, p. 38).

Your response:

This article is interesting for several reasons. One is the ambivalence of the author towards philosophy. Most claims are tentative, contextual, and/or conditional. There is a contradiction between the claim “Conceptualism does not constitute a philosophy of art” and “If the conceptual medium is philosophical argumentation, the artifact that is produced belongs to philosophy” (Leuthold, 1999, p. 38). So it is unclear whether the author want to argue that conceptualism is or is not a philosophy. He may mean that conceptual art is not a philosophy of art but is philosophy. The numerous conditional, contradictory claims make it difficult to determine the intent of the article. The author does appear to believe that there are philosophies of art including expression, institutional, and formalist theory and also disqualifies modernism as a philosophy of art. The criteria necessary for an art practice to be a philosophy, including 1) it must distinguish art from nonart and 2) it must distinguish between kinds of art, reflect the postmondern tendency to search for uniqueness, localization, and relatvism. The author also states that conceptual art “is a historical phenomenon and not a philosophy of art” may reflect anxiety over the notion of postmodernism as contained within a historical period in the larger epoch of modernity. I think the focus on the nonphilosophical nature of conceptual art is actually a diversion from the larger problem of the nature of visual art and visual language. One might argue that everything is art and therefore it is pointless to distinguish art from non-art. The author disagrees and this is a matter of difference in aesthetic disposition. The author ignores several art historical events relevant to conceptual art including the multi-millennial tradition of the display of found objects for aesthetic admiration, the 16th century German wunderderkammer (cabinets or rooms with displays of collections of objects) or the neo-conceptual art movements of the 1980’s and 90’s. Rather than focusing on philosophy it may be more important to focus on the notion of visual language, the process by which concepts are communicated, the experience of visual communication, and the use of text and objects to document that experience. Critiques of conceptual art that might be more productive could focus on the concept of intentionality.

Author: Kyle Guzik

Questions:

1) Is an artwork produced on purpose; in a work did the artist choose to do what they did?

2) How does one resist or eliminate intentionality? What process is necessary to ignore that concept as an avenue of criticism?

Author: Kyle Guzik


Tereso, Susana. (2012). Environmental education through art. International Journal of Education Through Art, 8(1), 23-47.


Natural harmony, beauty and diversity are personal rights and may move human beings towards fundamental changes in the city environment in the future.

Summary:

Tereso focuses on the role environmental art education can play to promote creative advancement of sustainable practices. The sensual experience of well-being in the artwork examined is derived via the fusion of art and nature resulting in harmony, beauty, and diversity (Tereso, 2012). The numerous color images in the article documenting work by both student and professional artists as well as natural and living objects are aesthetically pleasing and this is intentional as a major justification for sustainable practices is the pleasant visual and other sensory experiences they promote.

Methodology:

The article documents a series of artistic and educational projects focused on creative approaches toward sustainability. Locations included the Portuguese Sado Estuary, the Serra de São Mamede mountain, and the International Institute of Education Through Art in Łódz’, Poland.


According to Richard Louv, there is a relationship between ‘nature deficit’ and ‘disturbing childhood trends’, presenting ideas for ‘a better way to live with nature’ (2008). The natural environment has been the ‘context’ and ‘content’ of training for teaching of environmental education through art (Miraglia and Smilan 2009). In order to integrate knowledge on and experience of education through art obtained in the workshop mentioned above, a creative workshop was integrated into a walking route in the project Walk to Mourisca Tidemill (Tereso, 2012, p. 27).

Author: Kyle Guzik

Your response:

This article makes a compelling case for the inclusion of aesthetic considerations in environmental art education. Tereso points out that pleasant aesthetic experiences develop appreciation of the natural world and this promotes interest in sustainable practices. Tereso (2012) describes the benefits of these experiential environmental art education projects: The participants learned to respect nature, and the characteristics, importance and beauty of living beings. There was a consciousness about the risk that natural elements and habitats will disappear, and on ways to protect them. The participants’ interest in establishing a future relation with nature, the natural environment and its freedom, and the intergenerational dialogue and parents’ sensitization and knowledge, indicates the educative effectiveness of the model in sustaining our global ‘house’ (p. 43)

Questions:

1. The logic behind these projects appears to be to cultivate environmental aesthetic experiences so that participants will develop interest in the natural world and therefore also sustainability. It seems quite possible that individuals could enjoy and appreciate the beauty of nature but have no interest in sustainability, for example an off-road enthusiast digs track on his way up to a scenic lookout, admires the view, and then smashes a bear bottle on a rock before leaving. Is this assumption problematic?

2. It might be more accurate to describe the projects in the study as environmentally themed rather that sustainably themed. How could the art products themselves incorporate more sustainable practices into their production why retaining the emphasis on pristine aesthetic experience?

Author: Kyle Guzik


Park, D. C., Simpson-Housley, P., & Deman, A. (1994). To the “Infinite spaces of creation”: The interior landscape of a schizophrenic artist. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 84(2), 192-209. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1994.tb01734.x


Thanks to the artistic genius of the Swiss schizophrenic Adolf Wölfli, we may enter, with wonder and trepidation, the world of an individual in distress (Park, Simpson-Housley, & Deman, 1994, p.192).

Summary:

Schizophrenic artists exhibit common tendencies. Their art tends to become increasingly stylized. However, their art varies enormously. Park, Simpson-Housley, & Deman (1994) analyze the work of Adolf Wölfli.

Methodology:

The authors begin with a brief but relevant biography and then proceed to examine Wölfli private world, personal mythology, and how close attention to formal elements in Wölfli’s landscapes can be used to intuit complex narratives about the artist’s mental state, psychology, and thought processes. The authors find some of the insights they observe in the art frightening.


Author: Kyle Guzik

Your response:

This would be a great artist to present to students if the goal was to explore neurodiversity. The images presented in this article are intriguing and complex, but not terrifying, grotesque, or sexual. The drawings have a strange indeterminacy between representation and abstraction which allows some capability to posit the artist’s intentions

Author: Kyle Guzik

in concert with the available historical context. The works are open-ended and ambiguous some interpretations will be specific to the viewer others are nearly unavoidable due to the arts evident and specific expressive qualities. This tension due to the contradiction between purposeful expression and opaque ambiguity justifies continued interest in the artist and his work.

Questions:

1. The authors’ claim that the art of schizophrenics tends to become increasingly stylized over time sounds true, especially in consideration of the progression evident the psychedelic cat art of Louis Wain. When one looks closely at the formal elements in the works of these artists one may begin to contemplate the mental state that led to their production. This may make children sad. This leads to a generalized question regarding the boundaries’ and limitations one must set when determining what art one should present to one’s students. Of course the art must be age appropriate but regardless of the mental state or background or personal qualities of the artist, shouldn’t an art classroom generally feel welcoming and cheerful with students feeling enthusiastic and uplifted as a consequence of instruction? Depicting some of the less pleasant aspects of life is also an important function of art. What is the best way to approach this?

Author: Kyle Guzik


Renzi, K. (2013). Safety in objects: Discourses of violence and Value—The rokeby venus and rhythm 0. Substance, 42(1), 120-145.


Is it better for women to be valued as subjects or as objects in the eyes of society (Renzi, 2013, p. 120)?

I hope, however, to show how such a question— and giving the latter, "object," as its answer—does not contradict feminist aims but rather highlights the ways in which these aims have not yet been reached (Renzi, 2013, p. 120).

Summary:

Renzi (2013) demonstrates “how feminist art criticism has distinguished between subjects and objects on gendered lines” (p. 121). She criticizes the misguided “faith” that the performance art can “rectify subject/object inequalities for female subjects” (Renzi, 2013, p. 120-121). Evidence to support this argument comes from interpretation of two feminist performance pieces, Mary Richchardson’s slashing of the Rokeby Venus and Mariuna Abramović’s Rhythm 0 in 1974. Counterproductively, these pieces “betray the privilege of aesthetic objecthood within cultural valuations of women, even as such narratives explicitly discussed challenges enacted by and on subjects” (Renzi, 2013, p. 138). The response to Richardson’s vandalism was focused on the reduction in financial she inflicted on the object. Abramović’s piece is portrayed as an act of self-objectivization.

Methodology:

The author identifies a merger of embodied phenomenological subject-hood and constructed post-structural subject-hood. This provides a framework for distinction between a feminist performance artist as a subject or as an object. Renzi then applies the criteria she has defined to critique the Richchardson’s and Abramović’s performative actions. These pieces privilege object-hood because they remain trapped in the discourse of aesthetic value and of commodity. She concludes, “We must find a means to articulate a subject’s value not as essence nor as aesthetic commodity but as a contribution, a being with an ability to further the social collective if her potential is given the opportunity to be reached” (Renzi, 2013, p. 141).Quotes (what you find relevant):

I do not disagree that there is potential insight or wisdom about human interrelations to be gained from Abramović’s Rhythm 0, but I do think the above

Author: Kyle Guzik

reading pushes aside a potentially fruitful investigation of the flesh-art merge in favor of a temporal double-transmutation— Abramović’s subject-body turned to object of artwork, and then back (at the threat of death) to the most valuable subject-body again. Just as it seems necessary to acknowledge the public’s response to and recognition of the Rokeby Venus as both a human, fleshy subject and an object of art, it seems important to look at Abramović’s body, especially as it is being vandalized, as both flesh and aesthetic object. And if, ultimately, it can be claimed that the outcry against the destruction of the Venus is an outcry about a humanized yet ultimately aesthetic object whose status as such is tied to its public value, it is essential to question whether, during the performance of Rhythm 0, the second transmutation of object back into subject actually took place. (Renzi, 2013, p. 133-134).

Your response:

I found this argument convincing and the evidence supporting the claim extensively and painstakingly researched and documented. The authors procedural investigation is straightforward, making relatively abstruse concepts like post-structuralism comprehensible. The analysis focuses on narratives surrounding the performance pieces. This is compelling because narratives sustain and extend performance art perhaps to a more heightened degree than in other media. This study explains how social practice art can fail, or at least lead the observer conclusions which contradict the stated intent of the artist.

Questions:

1. Can the process Renzi describes be operated in reverse? Would it be possible to create a piece ostensibly grounded in objectification of a woman or women, but with deeper conceptual and narrative associations that make a didactic statement about the indispensable subjectivity of femininity.

2. Renzi argues that we must learn to counter and manipulate a discourse of commodity (as well as aesthetic value). What contemporary or art historical works should we look to for precedents in this direction?

Author: Kyle Guzik


Song, Y. I. K. (2012). Crossroads of public art, nature and environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 18(6), 797-813. doi:10.1080/13504622.2012.670208


Environmental education through ecological art can help students develop creativity, critical thinking, and an arts-informed notion of being a citizen of the world (Song, 2010, p. 797).

Summary:

After a brief review of literature highlighting relevant examples of ecological art and a description of purpose and methods the author describes a series of ecological art-based lessons focused on development of student creativity, critical thinking skills, and preparation to become a citizen in a democracy. These included construction of a bird sanctuary, restoration of habitat in a pond, and trash removal and display of collected garbage.

Methodology:

Data for the study was collected via qualitative research methods including analysis of classroom dialog, student work such as PowerPoint presentations, video clips, and performances, peer feedback, journal entries, questionnaires, and comments on the class website. These myriad data sources were then coded and indexed by hand. Song used analysis methods developed by Delament (2002) as well as a phenomenological approach (Bruyn 1966; Moustakas 1994) to gain deeper understanding and insight on the students’ work.


If ingenuity and creativity could be put in place of consumerism maybe we would have more useful inventive items that were made, not bought. I think this is where ecological art becomes a key factor in educating people out of a lifestyle that is all about buying and shopping. (Lund 2009, personal communication)

Author: Kyle Guzik

Your response:

This study used a more formal methodology than many of the others I have included in this annotated bibliography. Detailed descriptions of the lesson plans used in this curriculum encourage replication of the best practices Song describes. The data analysis methods Song employed have strong face validity as they are based on a review of literature. Song draws conclusions on both the nature of effective environmental art education and teacher preparation for this curriculum.

Questions:

1. The students taught in the study are in preschool and elementary school. How could the practices demonstrated in this study be extended to meet the needs of older students?

2. The literature review and description of how the lessons focused on thinking skills are less developed than analyses related to creativity even though cultivation of critical thinking skills are a major stated goal for the study. This leads me to ask for greater detail: how do these lesson plans promote critical thinking skills?